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Kitchen Table Kibitzing 4/28/2026: Beans! [1]

['Belinda Ridgewood', 'View Profile', 'Dr. Ash', 'Chitown Kev', 'Dan K']

Date: 2026-04-28  

Good evening, Kibitzers!

Anyone who attended Chrislove’s KTK yesterday, or any number of KTK comment threads, knows that this is a bean-positive community, and in particular, an heirloom-bean-positive community. So I have collected some videos on heirloom beans in general, and our favorite brand, Rancho Gordo. (Here is Rancho Gordo’s YouTube channel, for your reference.)

For starters, here’s Adam Ragusea on the topic “What Even Are Beans?” ❧ [12:55]

America’s Test Kitchen explains the value of heirloom beans. ❧ [3:44]

There is considerable conflicting advice about preparing dried beans for cooking, but America’s Test Kitchen is usually worth hearing. They say you should brine the beans. ❧ [3:31]

Now, as to Rancho Gordo: the company and its founder, Steve Sando, came to wider attention during the Covid pandemic, when everyone was staying home cooking. At the time CBS Sunday Morning did this segment on them in 2020, Rancho Gordo was sufficiently small that it was operating as a subscription “bean club” with limited inventory. It had blown up seemingly overnight, and now the club had a waiting list of many thousands. ❧ [4:23]

Atlas Obscura did a longer piece in 2023 on Rancho Gordo and heirloom beans, also speaking with some growers in Mexico. ❧ [11:53]

Steve Sando has a number of bean-cooking videos on his channel. They are long and, let’s say discursive (and look who’s talking!), but entertaining. Sando is quite a character. I picked the Royal Corona video because duh. ❧ [27:53]

Rancho Gordo opened a store in Napa a couple of weeks ago. Here’s a video montage of the Grand Opening festivities. ❧ [2:15]

To finish up, let’s see a few bean recipes, and indeed, a few large-bean recipes.

Justine Doiron for NYT Cooking: Beans and Greens. ❧ [10:23]

Carla Lalli Music: Brothy Basil Beans. ❧ [14:57]

Dimitra’s Dishes with Dimitra Khan: Gigantes Plaki. ❧ [4:35]

A musical coda (as Dr. Krugman always says):

Weezer: Pork and Beans. ❧ [3:16]

KTK diarists: Remember, you can select from CURRENT series boilerplate by typing “ktkbp” in the search box of the image library. Please don’t use old images you have stashed away. Holler if you need help!

For series title images, type “ktktable“. (Many thanks to Ojibwa for some of the new kitchen images!)

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/4/28/800029464/community/kitchen-table-kibitzing-4-28-2026-beans/

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